History

The MISL was founded by businessmen Ed Tepper and
Earl Foreman in October 1977.

The league fielded six teams for its inaugural
1978β79 season. Before folding after 14 seasons of competition, at the conclusion of the
1991β92 season, a total of 24 franchises – under 31 team names (seven teams would change city/name) – had played in the MISL.

The
Houston Summit (1978β80)/
Baltimore Blast (1980β92) franchise was the only one to compete for the entire 14 seasons of the MISL's existence. The next longest-lived franchise, and the longest in a single city, were the 13 seasons of the
Wichita Wings team, which missed only the inaugural 1978β79 season. The third longest-lived franchise was the 12 seasons of the
Detroit Lightning (1979β80)/
San Francisco Fog (1980β81)/
Kansas City Comets (1981β91) franchise, which missed only the first and last seasons.

The
San Diego Sockers was the most successful franchise on the soccer pitch, winning eight of the MISL's 14 overall championships (57%) – which also equates to eight championships during the team's nine seasons in the league (89%). The
New York Arrows won the MISL's first four championships, then folded after the league's sixth season.

The most successful player in the MISL is arguably
Steve Zungul, a
Yugoslav Americanstriker who was MISL Most Valuable Player six times, was the Scoring Champion six times, the Pass Master (most assists) four times, played on eight championship-winning teams (and one runner-up), and won Championship Series Most Valuable Player four times. Zungul is the MISL's all-time leader in goals (652, nearly 200 ahead of the second highest scorer), assists (471, nearly 100 ahead of second) and points (1,123, nearly 300 ahead of second).

Despite ongoing financial hardships, the MISL was a huge success.[1] The league averaged 7,644 fans per game over its 14 regular seasons, and averaged 9,049 fans per game over its 14 playoff runs.

MISL inspires Arena Football

The concept was initially so popular that in 1981, it helped pave the way for the creation of another indoor sports league, the
Arena Football League, and subsequently the entire sport of indoor "gridiron" football. During the MISL All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden,
National Football League promotions director
Jim Foster sketched a design of what a football field would look like on the back of a 9x12 manila envelope.[2] That inspiration gave birth to the concept now known as
arena football (also
indoor football) and the AFL was born six years later. Foster credits the MISL for the inspiration.[1][3][4]

*Three
North American Soccer League (NASL) teams temporarily joined the MISL for the 1982β83 season, as the NASL did not play indoors for that season. As the NASL was folding in 1985 four of its former teams (Chicago, Minnesota, New York and San Diego) joined the MISL in late 1984.

The "Denver Avalanche" had declared bankruptcy and ceased operations after the 1981β82 season, but the franchise still existed and was purchased out of bankruptcy and moved to Tacoma after a dormant season. The MISL, however, considered the Stars a new franchise and, thus, team records did not transfer to Tacoma.

In June 1987, the MISL granted a conditional franchise to
NBA Denver Nuggets owner
Sidney Shlenker, to commence play in the 1988β89 season.[5] When the tentative "Denver Desperados" attracted deposits on 400 season tickets, rather than the required 5,000 within four months, the franchise was revoked in November 1987.[6]